In mid-January, the administrative court of Paris had "enjoined the State to issue the assistance of the public force within two months" to put an end to the occupation of this place of transmission founded in the 1970s.

“As the end of this period approached, the final discussions having failed with the occupants, the prefect of police implemented the decision of the judge”, specifies the prefecture of Police.

In protest, activists and supporters of the cause gathered Tuesday evening on the forecourt of the Arab World Institute.

The last associative cinema in Paris, located in the Latin Quarter, it had been occupied by activists for months, its walls having been put up for sale by its owner, the Caisses d'Épargne Works Council.

Its occupants opposed the takeover by the SOS Group, which had put 4.2 million euros on the table for the cinema, located in a district plagued by real estate speculation.

The SOS group, one of the largest associations in the social and solidarity economy (21,000 employees), present in employment, seniors, youth or culture, has always denounced a trial of intent, pledging to preserve its arthouse cinema activity.

In a press release published on Tuesday, the group believes that "our multiple attempts to build a common project, alongside the collective, have not succeeded (...)".

And to indicate that he will not renew "the promise to purchase which binds us to the CSE of the Caisses d'Épargne IDF in the current state of things".

Supported by dozens of personalities from culture and the 7th art, from Mathieu Amalric to Annie Ernaux via Jonathan Cohen and Agnès Jaoui, the group of activists refuses to return the keys to the places, believing that they have "no legal guarantee" on the continuation of the cinema activity, and denouncing a takeover "by a billionaire group whose neoliberal practices are gradually undermining the associative environment".

Spectators wait to enter the Parisian arthouse cinema La Clef, in Paris, in January 2020 Philippe LOPEZ AFP / Archives

Asked by AFP, the town hall of Paris indicates that it "discovered this eviction this morning on social networks", after having intervened at the end of January with the prefecture so that a "suspension is granted to the occupants of the cinema".

"Solutions allowing them to continue their activities are being studied", specifies the town hall which recalls its support for independent cinema.

© 2022 AFP